FRACKING in Johnson County a Drea m or a Nightmare ?

FRACKING

Is the idea of

BENEFITS
A 6-state study shows that over a seven year period, less than 4 new directly related jobs have been created per well. Estimates were as high as 31 per well.

FRACKING DANGERS

1. Subsurface Trespass

1. Possible Jobs

Under current law, landowners and mineral rights owners will not be notified, or asked for their consent, for any sections of horizontal wellbores which extend beyond 1,500 feet from a well site. Since wellbores will extend up to 1 miles (7,920 feet) horizontally, landowners in Johnson County will likely have their land drilled underneath them without their knowledge or consent.

2. Forced Pooling

Landowners can be forced to lease their property against their will, as stipulated by the Illinois Oil & Gas Act.

3. Decreased Property Values

Homes near fracking sites have lost as much as 75% of their value, as experienced by the Ruggiero family in Texas.4

Whatever jobs are created will be gone when the fracking operation is complete. An industry backed Chamber of Commerce study estimated that fracking will create between 1,000 & 47,000 jobs. 1,000 for the entire state is insignificant.

4. Increased Health Risks Near Fracking

Recent studies have found increased risks of cancer, low birth weight, respiratory disorders, and neurological disease near fracking activities due to the release of hazardous air contaminants.5

5. Water Contamination 6. Earthquake Damage 7. Economic Damage

There are over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination near fracking operations.6 Fracking is exempt from the Clean Water Act & Clean Air Act. It has been proven that injection wells, used to store toxic waste, cause earthquakes and multiple tremors, including in Youngstown, Ohio.7 A study on high-volume fracking in Pennsylvania shows that wide-scale impacts from fracking threaten long-term local economies such as tourism.8

8. Illinois Law Will NOT Protect Residents

YO U DECIDE

Only residents within 1,500 feet of well sites will have any chance of compensation when their water becomes contaminated, even though wellbores will extend up to 1 miles (7920 feet) horizontally.

9. Infrastructure Damage 10. Invasion of Privacy

Dust, noise and road damage from industry truck travel top the list of complaints, according to a report from Cornell University.8 Fracking threatens the peaceful, private way of life in Johnson County. Fracking puts loud, polluted industrial zones literally in our back yards.

Vote YES
on March 18th
Shall the peoples right to local self-government be asserted by Johnson County to ban corporate fracking as a violation of their rights to health, safety, and a clean environment?

Vote YES to support a BAN on FRACKING in Johnson County

If you vote YES to the ballot initiative on March 18th, you are in support of the Johnson County Commissioners passing a local law to ban fracking.
For voting questions, call the Johnson County Clerk 658-3611

What is Fracking?
High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing or fracking is a new method of natural gas and oil extraction. Thousands, or even millions, of gallons of fluids are injected into mile-long horizontal wells at high pressure to fracture rock layers and release oil and gas. A 2011 Congressional Report shows 650 toxic chemicals can be used, including benzene, formaldehyde, and lead.1

What Do They Use to Frack?

Companies may use water or a gas (such as nitrogen) as the base fluid to frack. Studies indicate that nitrogen fracking may pose even greater risks to our water supplies due to increased out-of-zone penetration in combination with our naturally fractured New Albany Shale, setting up a recipe for possible methane migration.2 Also, more pressure is needed to drive nitrogen down to the lateral well. This, in turn, calls for immensely overdesigned uphole hardware (casing, wellhead), and the stimulation job can become dangerously unstable as the liquid phase dynamically changes to gas.3

Industry will downplay risks and ignore victims. Our water supplies, our homes, our property, and the health and safety of our families and animals are too precious to risk for a few temporary jobs. Vote YES on March 18.

CITATIONS 1. http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Hydraulic-Fracturing-Chemicals-2011-4-18.pdf 2. http://www.upstreampumping.com/article/shale-coverage/completions-new-albany-shale 3. http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Shale-gas-fracking-Nitrogen-1839867.S.179779527 4. http://www.earthworksaction.org/library/detail/natural_gas_flowback 5. http://www.ucdenver.edu/about/newsroom/newsreleases/Pages/health-impacts-of-fracking-emissions.aspx http://ecowatch.com/2014/01/06/research-links-fracking-andlow-birth-weight-newborns/ 6. http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/reports/the-case-for-a-ban-on-gas-fracking/ 7. Potentially induced earthquakes in OK, Keranen, Savage, Abers, & Cochran. Seismic Structures of the Central US crust and shallow upper mantle, Pollitz & Mooney. Enhanced Remote Earthquake Triggering at Fluid Injection Sites in the Midwestern US, van der Elst, Savage, Keranen, & Abers. 8. http://www.greenchoices.cornell.edu/downloads/development/shale/Economic_Effects_on_Drilling_Localities.pdf

www.DontFractureIllinois.net